In the land of Class AAA, Estevan Martinez would be king.

Too bad he plays for an AAAA team.

Capital High's 6-foot-4 post is a dominant factor when he faces the likes of Pojoaque Valley and West Las Vegas, but even he knows that he's doing it against the Elks and Dons.

After a seven-point, 10-rebound, two-block performance in a 65-44 win over West Las Vegas in the opening round of the Al Armendariz Classic in Edward A. Ortiz Memorial Gymnasium, Martinez wants to show that he can do it again.

And he'll be up against posts that look more like him when he and the Jaguars take on
Colorado's Pueblo West in a tournament semifinal tonight at 8 p.m.

The Cyclones have three players 6-3 or taller.

"This is against three-A," Martinez said. "I need to play like that against four-A, five-A teams. I played good, but I'm not satisfied."

Martinez, a junior, is exactly what Capital needs to augment its strong guard play in Reece Goodman (19 points) and Isaiah Bustamante (14 points).

His head coach, Mark Senteney, isn't asking much from Martinez — or fellow interior teammates Joe Chavez, Jonathan Rodriguez and R.J. Adams.

"I tell him the stats don't lie," Senteney said. "You should be able to get three rebounds a half, and that's all I'm asking. Is that hard?"

Martinez admits it's not, but the first-year varsity player is still making that transition to a faster, stronger and even bigger style of play.

Martinez still is learning how to use his body, even against the Dons (1-3), who have no player taller than 6-1.

He picked up a couple of fouls going over the backs of his opponents.

He also was silent through the first quarter, failing to register even a rebound as Capital (5-2) held a 14-6 lead.

It took him a minute to finally get his first carom, but by the time the halftime buzzer sounded, he had six.

He also scored on a three-point play off a drive from the high post that gave the Jaguars a 22-6 lead with 5:26 to go.

His fifth rebound of the half — on the offensive end — was converted into a putback and it was 36-11 at 1:07.

Of course, there was "the dunk."

With a little more than 3 minutes left in the half, Martinez had a breakaway chance and he went strong to the basket for the dunk, but he held on to the ball an extra beat, thinking West Las Vegas defender Michael Armijo would stay in his way.

"I guess, while I was in the air, I went farther than I thought," Martinez said wistfully. "Then he moved out of the way, and I hit back of the rim. I thought he was gonna stay there, but he moved at the last moment."

Senteney, though, wasn't going to admonish him for the miss.

"Estevan came out aggressive," Senteney crowed. "I didn't get mad at him for missing the dunk. We were 0-for-3 on dunks (Goodman missed two) and I gave the guys grief, but he had the guts to go flush it and that's good. He was being assertive instead of passive."

Now the key is for Martinez to take that personality and use it against a team that matches up with him.

Austin Payne, a 6-6 senior for Pueblo West, had 10 points in the afternoon session.

Martinez knows that, which is half the battle.

"I have to use what I have," Martinez said. "I need to use my long arms and jump up to get boards and block shots."

He's already proven he's the king of Class AAA.

Contact James Barron at 986-3045 or jbarron@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at thereadbarron.